Ever so clear a conversation on acceptance with bushwick bill
1. Ever So Clear: A conversation on acceptance
with Geto Boys rapper Bushwick Bill
SXSW Music Panel, 2016
Submitted by Audrea Diaz, profile journalist and Crip culture
activist
2. As part of the pioneering Southern Hip-
Hop group The Geto Boys, Richard Shaw
(known as Bushwick Bill), transcended
rap and disability culture. Mainstream
ideals have taught us to be passive,
almost invisible, but during The Geto
Boys early 90s peak – Bill was bold,
brazen, and aggressive – common traits
for industry success, but not necessarily
used to describe the disabled community.
He has dwarfism and was left partially
blind from a highly publicized 1991
shooting. A born again Christian, Bill
continuously sought personal healing
from a prolific life marred by controversy.
3. Main themes in conversation
• Disability and body acceptance
• Faith
• Self-sabotage
• Personal growth
• Artistic healing
• Rehabilitation and redemption
• Ableism in the media and trailblazing a path
4. Audience Takeaway
• This is a sister interview to a proposed Interactive
Panel on disability and media perception.
• The goal is to give audience insight to our
capabilities as a disabled community. We are
innovators and industry assets, who deserve to be
treated as such.
5. Interview Dynamic
The Geto Boys “My Mind Playing Tricks On Me” and Bill’s “Ever So Clear”, are
evidence to the acceptance struggle our community often faces; and through his
work, Bill enforces the importance of expression.
Finding a level of common ground is essential to the interview dynamic. Below is a
personal example of my own artistic healing through poetry:
• The Face of Fear, a spoken word
Interviewing experience have taught me that my disability serves as a symbol of
empathy and understanding; which in turn, helps the interviewee feel at ease.
6. Notable Links
• Bill’s “Testimony of Redemption”
• The Geto Boys on Yo! MTV Raps
• Bill on The Howard Stern Show (graphic commentary) part 1, part 2
• VH1’s 40 Most Shocking Hip-Hop Moments at #27
• Geto Boys Plot First Record in a Decade via Rolling Stone (June 15, 2015)
• “Mind Playing Tricks On Me” at #1 on Complex’s 50 Best Houston Rap Songs (May
16, 2013)
• “Ever So Clear” at #12 on Complex’s The 25 Greatest Rap-A-Lot Songs Of All Time
(May 21, 2010)
For more on Audrea, please visit her writer portfolio here.
